The present invention relates to a method and a device for handling artillery shells when loading artillery guns that have an integral shell magazine fixed in the traverse system but independent from the elevating mass, which magazine on command feeds out shells one by one with a specific linear velocity in the longitudinal axis of each shell. Each shell is subsequently transferred to the loading position for the gun by a loading pendulum and cradle.
The logical location for a magazine incorporated in the gun and fixed in the traverse system but independent from the elevating mass is directly beside the gun as the magazine must not obstruct the recoil of the gun. This in turn means that transfer of shells from the magazine to alignment with the breech opening must involve both a lateral transfer to alignment with the direction of the barrel and adjustment of the angle to coincide with the angle of elevation of the gun.
The present invention is primarily intended for heavy and medium artillery guns that are equipped with a fully automatic loading system.
On the eve of the 21st century one must count on the fact that each artillery gun will necessarily be self-propelled and constitute its own artillery system, thus incorporating its own fire control and a sufficient number of rounds for at least a limited number of engagements. The capabilities that already exist for locating artillery guns that give fire and then rapidly deploying counter-fire will result in a requirement for an absolute minimum limit on the time that an artillery gun can be permitted to give fire, after which the artillery gun must leave the deployment sites rapidly as possible.
The need to fire the maximum number of rounds in the shortest possible time more or less assumes that the guns are equipped with fully automatic loading systems. Such fully automatic loading systems must be able to handle a number of different types of shells and propellant charges which, moreover, may often be fired directly after each other in one and the same artillery salvo. This means in turn that both shells and propellant charges must be handled at the greatest possible speed inside their respective magazines, as well as between the magazines and the loading pendulums and cradles normally used to transfer shells and propellant charges between each magazine and the breech opening.
By reason of their relatively high dead weight shells especially may give rise to a number of handling problems resulting from the combination of their dead weight and the high handling velocities that may be upwards of several metres per second.
The gun system in the present invention assumes that the shell magazine is incorporated in the traverse system but is not part of the elevating mass. To enable the gun to maintain a high rate of fire it is necessary for the shells to be fed out from the shell magazine at high speed and then to have this outfeed velocity braked to zero immediately thereafter, thenxe2x80x94at the same high speedxe2x80x94be re-positioned to the same angle of elevation as the gun and be rammed.
Ramming the shells into the gun necessitates a loading cradle and rammer. It must also be possible for the cradle to be moved to the side so as not to obstruct gun recoil. In addition to the transfer movements of the shell already mentioned, the shell needs to be moved laterally while located in the cradle.
Even if a lateral transfer movement and ramming of the shells are assumed to be achieved using a separate loading cradle, a loading pendulum that can both brake and re-align the shells will necessarily be heavy and unwieldy.
As claimed in the present invention it is proposed that these two functions be divided between two closely interacting but mechanically independent devices of which the firstxe2x80x94the brake modulexe2x80x94is designed to receive the shell and brake its outfeed motion within a short linear distance and provide a pre-defined stop position for the rear plane of the shell, after which the brake device of the brake module is deactivated and the shell is taken over by the shell loading pendulum that re-aligns it with the angle of the rammer that shall coincide with the angle of elevation of the gun and the shell shall be transferred to the rammer. Retardation of the shell is thus achieved during a short forwards motion, after which the shell is returned rearwards a short distance to a pre-defined stop position. By using a pre-defined stop position for the rear plane of the shell as the initial point for transfer of the shell to the loading pendulum we have devised a device that can handle shells of various lengths designed for the same artillery gun. We must, namely, assume that in the future there will be shells available in different lengths designed for different purposes and ranges.
On a practical level it is proposed that the device as claimed in the present invention be designed with a first brake device mounted in the brake module that grips the front section of the shell and that is linked to a linearly operating short-stroke brake and return function. The brake device is thus designed with a grab jaws device openable in one direction, preferably downwards, that is suitably equipped with brake blocks for engagement with the front conical nose section of the shell.
As the brake device grips the shell ahead of the centre of the shell, the centre and rear sections of the shell are available for engagement with the shell carrier incorporated in the loading pendulum. As claimed in one development of the present invention this shell carrier is designed so that initially it constitutes a guide chute for the shells from the outfeed aperture of the magazine to the brake blocks of the brake device. The shell can also be returned in the guide chute to rest against a deployable rear stop lug that shall constitute the pre-defined rear stop position. As soon as the shell has reached this stop position the brake device can be deactivated/opened after which the shell loading pendulum-which is arranged in parallel with the linear direction of motion of the brake device and that is pivotable around the trunnion centre of the gunxe2x80x94can be pivoted downwards towards the loading pendulum without the brake device obstructing the shell carried in the shell carrier. Simultaneous with this movement the shell carrier is re-angled relative to the loading pendulum carrier arm so that when the shell reaches the rammer the shell has a horizontal angle position that is parallel to the shell loading cradle. The re-angling of the actual loading pendulum can be achieved using a chain-drive driven by an electric motor, while the re-angling between the loading pendulum carrier arm and the shell carrier can, for example, be controlled by a slewing bracket system between the loading pendulum and the shell carrier in which the slewing bracket system is controlled by a fixed arc mounted on the gun that always gives the shell carrier the correct angle depending on the angular position of the shell loading pendulum.
Provided the shell in the shell carrier is at an angle so that at least part of its own weight rests against the previously mentioned deployable stop lug throughout the re-angling of the shell carrier until it reaches the shell loading cradle, no special securing device will be needed for the shell as its own weight will ensure that it lies still in the shell carrier during re-angling.
As claimed in the above indicated functional sequence the shell carrier must, in the first instance, act as a guide chute leading to the brake blocks of the brake device for the shells fed out from the magazine at high velocity by a force imparted from the rear and, secondly, must secure each shell during re-anglingxe2x80x94achieved by its own rearwards acting weight against the stop lugxe2x80x94and ,thirdly, be able to release the shell through its base section to the rammer. One way to manufacture a downwards opening shell carrier having the basic shape of a horizontal semi-cylindrical chute is based on the use of two quarter-cylindrical shaped carrier plates that in initial position meet with a longitudinal joint along the centre of the chute thus formed, and which plates can be displaced or pivoted away from each other with the axis of the cylinder as pivot axis until they meet each other along their other longitudinal edges at the diametrically opposite side of the axis of the cylinder whereby the base of the chute is completely open. This type of motion can be achieved, for example, if each of the quarter-cylindrical shaped carrier plates is mounted on at least two semi-circular carrier yokes that are displaceable along similar semi-circular guides fixed above the outfeed direction of the chute. Displacement of the semi-circular carrier yokes along the guides can be by means of a cog driven by an electric motor and operating directly on the gear teeth in the semi-circular carrier yokes.
If in the method indicated above these semi-circular carrier yokes are displaced along the guides to the open position of the device the quarter-cylindrical shaped carrier plates meet in the upper position of the cylindrical space, while in closed position they meet under the centre of the guide chute that they form.